fandomhigh | Introduction to Paleobiology

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Introduction to Paleobiology - Monday, 1st Period

Connor was in front of the class, notes in hand. There was a particular smile on his face as he got ready for class as he had just started a class on paleobiology for his university studies. So, he had been really digging into the research and all and was excited to get into the meat of paleobiology with the class. When it was time he cleared his throat and started.

“To start off our exploration of paleobiology we are going to focus on the field of paleobotany today. Paleobotany applies the principles and methods of paleobiology to flora, especially green land plants, but also includes fungi, algae, seaweed, and other micro as well as macro plants. It also deals with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments, and the evolutionary history of plants, with a bearing upon the evolution of life in general. When archeologists, paleontologists, and even modern-day scientists look at the remains of plants, we can learn a lot about distant and not-so-distant histories of the earth. Fossilized tree rings can give clues about droughts, rainy seasons, and even volcanic activity. The appearance and disappearance of certain pants from the fossil record can give us information about the evolution of plant life and a look at extinction events in the past.” Connor smiled as he looked over at Cutter and nodded so he could continue with anything he wanted to add.

Cutter smiled at Connor as he continued the lecture, “Paleobotany has become important to the field of archaeology with the use of Phytoliths in relative dating,” he explained, “this is a microscopic structure made of silica that can be found in some plant tissues and these persist even after a plant has been decayed and it is through this that this can help archaeologists reconstruct the plant at the site. Phytoliths can provide evidence of both economically important plants and those that are indicative of the environment at a particular time period. Today, we’re going to be looking at some slides of preserved pollen fossils to help get an idea of what it is like to study plant fossils on the smallest of scales," he added before he looked back to Connor for him to continue the rest of the class.

Connor nodded and finished up the class as he passed around the papers to go along with the class activity. “If you have any questions or need help with anything, Professor Cutter and I will be around. We will also be around after class if anyone wishes to discuss anything.” With that, he went back behind the desk while the class got started.

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Like you do!

Listen to them talk, take a nap, pass notes to your classmates, you do you!

Run the simulation and discuss your findings if you wish!

Talk to your teachers.... once they ping in!

I need coffee!!!!

Connor was there and available should anyone need him. He would just definitely be clutching that coffee cup at the same time.

Cutter was there, also with his own cup of coffee as he was fascinated by the computer simulation and was definitely having his own go at it.

Liberty Hazlett

Liliana Vess

Liliana raised her hand. "Will we be studying extinction events?" she asked, with a totally normal amount of eagerness and curiosity.

Cutter smiled, "we will be covering extinction events when we look at prehistoric ecosystems," he told her, "it will be a topic that will come up quite a bit over the course of the semester,"

She was just going to keep her hand raised. "And will we have an fossils or the like from those various events? Bones? Exoskeletons? Full-sized skeletons?"

Asking for no reason, don't even worry about it, Cutter.

"We have a range of fossils and bones from different extinction events, even ones such as trilobites that are quite small in size that died out at the end of the Permian Mass Extinction event," yes Cutter was rather excited that he had just gotten to use an example of his favourite fossil.

"How small is small?" Liliana asked, a little sus.

“The smallest trilobites can be less than a millimetre in length like the Acanthopleurella stipulae,” Cutter explained, “but some of them can be large and you can find trilobites that are around 70cm, such as the Isotelus but most will average between 3 and 10 cm,” he added.

That was quite possibly a lot more information that Liliana wanted to know but he did always get over excited when he talked about the trilobites.

"I have no idea what that unit of measurement is," Liliana, an American-owned IP, declared.

“Oh um…” Cutter blinked a little as he tried to reword the measurements, “it would be a range between 0.039 inches and 28 inches,” he tried instead.

"How many of the twenty-eight inch ones will we be experimenting with?" Liliana asked.

AGAIN FOR NO REASON.

"Well those particular fossils are a lot rarer, so we may not get to experiment with those ones," Cutter explained, "we don't tend to come across the 28 inch ones very often but the average size ones that are 1.2 to 3.9 inches are more easily found, we can find those ones on the beach here," he added.

Liliana wrinkled her nose. And then considered it. "Unexciting, but workable," she decided. "Unimpressed, though."

"They are a wonderful specimens though," Cutter assured her, "they're some of the oldest fossils that we have, even older than sharks and dinosaurs, they survived 3 mass extinction events,"

Yes, but they didn't make for good minions, Cutter. The entire reason Liliana had signed up for this class was for new minion ideas.

"Oh but darling," Liliana said with a slight chuckle, "you'll understand their impressive ability to survive puts them even further outside my bailiwick."

It was entirely possible that neither professor knew what she was which, honestly, made this entire discussion - and class! - that much more hilarious.

Liliana looked through the microscope, marveling at the machine far more than the slides. The best microscopes she'd ever encountered got nowhere near this resolution and that was far more interesting to her than a bunch of fossilized pollen spores.

She wasn't Selesnya, so you'll understand that she didn't particularly care.

Humphrey Goodman

"Liliana, good to see you bright and early this morning!" Humphrey said from where he was situated just across the way from her. His voice was all too chipper and his smile was all too bright for such an early hour.

Liliana raised her head up at him and leveled him a glare that, had she put mana into it, might have sent him to the graveyard early. "No."

Mornings were not for this level of energy, Humphrey. Especially mornings without skeletons.

"No? Oh... ummm right... right.... mornings" Humphrey said lowering his voice and giving an apologetic nod. He often forgot that most people weren't early risers like him. (Humphrey, most people weren't like you in most ways!) "Sorry," he said giving another apologetic nod toward Liliana.

Liliana had had enough enthusiasm for one (1) medium-energy interaction this morning and that was to ask about extinction events. She was done and required now a nap of at least three (3) hours before anything more were possible.

"Why am I not at all surprised you're a morning person?" she asked. Her tone did not suggest this was a compliment.

Humphrey was good at the details. Social cues not so much. But he read that tone loud and clear and he sat quietly, making a mental note to bring coffee or a peace offering of some sort for Liliana next class.

See, though? He was educable and that was important. She continued her glare for another few moments and then let it go, going back to her microscope while grumbling to herself. Ignis, Steve Rogers, Gladio, and Humphrey might all be mentioned, in various accusatory tones.

Illyana Rasputin

Illyana was just going to sit back and look vastly amused at this line of questioning.

Was she going to say anything? NOPE. She was just going to enjoy this.

"When you're looking at a fossil this small, with little to no dna left to test, how do you differentiate between regional variation, species evolution, or individual mutation?" Yana asked as she started writing in her notebook with her colored pencils. "Even using the microscope, they're so tiny."

"That's a very good question," Connor said with a thoughtful nod. "A lot of what we use in the comparison of ancient pollen and spore samples is built on years of previous study. Decades of research and discovery and comparison have given us a fairly decent understanding of what was around and what 'types' or 'families' of plants were thriving at certain periods. We find similar pollen and spore fossils in the same area and in the same rock strata. As far as the DNA it comes from the fossils and discoveries where we are able to find leaves, stems, or root material along with pollen remnants to match it to known specimens and to compare them as well."

Alara Kitan

Beta

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Introduction to Paleobiology - Monday, 1st Period

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